I Will Try Harder

Look past your thoughts so you may drink the pure nectar of this moment.

Rumi

Approximately eight years and one month from today my daughter will be graduating from high school. While I realize that graduation is a time of celebration and great joy, the thought of one of my children no longer living under my roof makes me sad.

And yet I have today and tomorrow and many more with her. So how is it fair to her that I allow anything to slice away even just a sliver of the precious moments that I have remaining with her?

It is not!

And yet I do it all of the time.

Moments do not repeat themselves. That is what makes them so special. We may not always be able to fully experience each and every one. But we owe each moment our fullest attention because they presented themselves to us when they could have just as easily gone on the next person. Yet they didn’t.

But they just might, if they begin to notice that we are not fully present when they appear.

And they willnotice.

And so will our children.

I do not watch the news and I do not read the newspaper simply because I try to keep my mind free of negativity. So far this strategy has worked fairly well, although from time to time I will inadvertently hear mention of this catastrophe or that breaking event and it chips away just a little bit of my inner peace.

But it is that which is within my control that I must improve upon. As I mentioned earlier, I have only a finite number of moments remaining with my daughter at home and I want to be fully present for as many as possible. It is not fair that while I am with her, my brain is secretly trying to solve some work related issue.

There will always be a problem to solve or an issue to resolve. They are a part of life.

But I must remember that they are just that.

A part of life.

They are not Life.

Life for me is a series of beautiful moments strung together.

I want to make my string as long as possible.

I want it to be so long that I am unable to see where it begins and where it ends.

I want it to be strong so that when times get tough I can wrap this thickly braided string of moments around me to keep me safe.

I will try harder.

I must.

I owe it to my daughter to make our string as long and as strong as I possibly can. And while I realize that I can add to it when she is away, I also know that it will be much more difficult.

My little girl will be graduating from high school in about eight years and one month.

I can’t wait to see how many incredible moments we can string together between now and then!

I make mistakes every day, but I am learning from them. If you have just a few minutes I’d be honored if you’d check out My Bad. The radio show about how and what extraordinary educators learn by sharing their mistakes. It has been an honor to learn from these folks and I hope you gain as much from their honest reflections as I have. Click on the link below to see what I am talking about.

Speaking Appearances

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Podcast Appearances

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“I absolutely loved Jon visiting our campus. He worked incredibly well with our students and staff and really shared great personal stories that connected with all. Days after Jon leaving, our students were still talking about the lessons they learned. Jon is a dynamic speaker who moves people. I would recommend him coming into any campus!”

Todd Nesloney, Principal Webb Elementary

“With a strikingly open and authentic perspective, Jon Harper takes the ordinary events of working in education and makes them extraordinary. He creates a reflective atmosphere which challenges full-time working graduate students to step back and find the silver lining in their own classroom mistakes. Harper’s approach on addressing personal mistakes is genuinely designed to work for educators at all levels in their career to make them a more meaningful educator.”

Brian Cook, Salisbury University

“Jon Harper, host of My Bad, spoke with our new teachers the other night. It was a roller coaster ride of emotion—we laughed, we cried, but most of all we thought about the students we work with everyday. His focus on being authentic and allowing our students to learn from their mistakes, as opportunities to grow, was exactly what our educators needed. Jon’s work is one of the best workshops I have participated in during my 23-year career.”

James P. Redman, Talbot County Curriculum Supervisor & former principal